“Is this true, son?”
Nathan sat in silence, his gaze going from Victoria, to his dad, and finally to Angel. Natalie reached over and slipped her hand in his. “It’s true,” she whispered. “I was always home alone. Daddy was out of town on business trips, and Nathan was never there. So, one day after school, I followed him.”
Nathan’s eyes snapped around to meet his sister’s. “You never said anything.”
Natalie shook her head, squeezing his hand tightly, “Of course not. I wasn’t sure what was going on. I thought maybe you had done something to get yourself in trouble. I had no idea what, but I didn’t want to embarrass you by asking, so I just ignored it.”
“Jesus,” Michael rasped, shoving his fingers through his hair before turning to face Victoria again. “You blackmailed my son? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Once again Victoria shrugged, and looked away. “I needed money.”
“Why did you have them kidnapped? I never received a ransom call. You had to have known I would have paid.”
Victoria scowled, looking over at Nathan. “I wanted to scare the little shit. He thought he could stop paying me like you did. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
“Victoria,” Michael said, shaking with anger, “do you have any idea what could have happened to them? Do you know what one of them came close to doing to our daughter?”
“Guess it would have been Nathan’s fault then, huh? He should have paid up.”
Natalie gasped, her eyes filling with tears. “How could you say that? You are horrible! Daddy’s right, we don’t want or need you in our lives.”
“Grow up, little girl,” her mother snarled. “Life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. You won’t last long in this world if you think it is.”
Nathan stood, straightening his shoulders, and nodded to Angel. “You kept your promise. Now it is my turn to keep mine.” Glancing at the FBI agents who were standing off to the side, obviously trying to decide if they should intervene or not, he said, “This is Victoria Perkins. She’s my mother. She’s been demanding money from me for the past couple of years. At first, it was a thousand a month. Now it’s up to five.”
“Five thousand dollars?” his father shouted. “How the hell have you been paying that?”
“It has been really hard, Dad,” Nathan admitted. Looking at the agents, he ducked his head and admitted quietly, “I have done some things that I’m not proud of, but I didn’t have a choice. She said she would kill you and Natalie if I didn’t.” Biting his bottom lip hard, he took a deep breath, then went on, “She took me to this old building in a seedy, rundown neighborhood. She shot one of the homeless men there to prove to me that she could do it. He was just lying there, sleeping, and she shot him in the leg, and then the chest.”
“Shut up,” Victoria yelled. “Shut your damn mouth!”
“I think we have heard enough for now,” one of the agents said, making a move toward Victoria. “We will take it from here.”
Phoenix stepped up, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling at the agent. Daring the man to try and take Victoria from them. “You will take her when my boss says you can, and not before,” he growled.
The agent’s eyes narrowed, and he grunted, “Do you have any idea who you are talking to, boy?”
Phoenix raised an eyebrow, “Someone who is about to get a call from the director of the FBI if he doesn’t step the fuck back.”
“That’s enough,” a voice said from the open doorway. “Angel, I appreciate what you are trying to do here, but I think it is time we let this family go home.”
“No,” Nathan cut in, “Victoria needs to go to prison for what she’s done. I will stay here all day and tell you everything, but she needs to go.”
Assistant Director Washington slipped past Angel’s team and walked over to Nathan. Clasping a hand on the boy’s shoulder, he promised, “She will, son. She will go away for a long time, but this can wait until you’ve all had some rest.”
“No,” Nathan insisted, shaking his head adamantly, “this needs to happen now, and she can’t ever get out. Ever. I don’t want my family put in danger again.”
Angel smiled, “Nathan, there is no way Victoria is ever leaving prison walls after I’m done with her. Trust me.” Removing a flash drive from her pocket, she handed it over to the Assistant Director. “Here’s everything you need to put her away for good, Sir.”
A slow grin spread across his face as he accepted it. “You and your team are just as good as everyone says, Ms. Johnston.” Holding up the flash drive, he looked over to where Victoria was cussing up a storm, “Thank you for this.”
7
Angel sighed wearily when their plane touched down in Denver later that afternoon. She and her team had stayed in California just long enough to answer the rest of the FBI’s questions, and then escort the Perkins family home so that they could double check the house one last time to make sure the family was safe. When they were ready to leave, Angel did something that she had never done after a mission before. She gave Nathan her private cell phone number and told him to contact her if he needed help again; anytime, day or night. The boy was strong, full of courage, and willing to do anything for his sister and father. He reminded her of her own son, Jinx, and for once she was unable to walk away and not look back.
Angel chuckled wryly to herself. Maybe she was getting soft in her old age. Nathan and Natalie were good kids, though. They did not deserve what their mother had put them through. Unfortunately, you could not pick the family you were born into.
Rubbing at the aching muscles in the back of her neck, Angel groaned quietly. The two hours of sleep she had managed to snag when they were in the air just wasn’t enough. Not after being up for nearly seventy-two hours straight. Which really sucked, because she knew her head would not be hitting her pillow anytime soon.
First, she needed to check in with the members of her team who had stayed behind, and then she wanted to stop by and see Jade and the twins. A part of her was hoping to catch a glimpse of her mate when she visited the White River Wolves compound. She had been fighting the urge to connect with Chase ever since the night they spent together right before she left. The need to feel that connection was stronger than it had been before they made love. She sighed. Made love, had sex. She wasn’t sure exactly what to call it, but she’d had to shove down the memories of that night numerous times, or risk screwing up her mission. She’d almost given in more than once, and slipped into his mind. She was used to connecting with him off and on. Most of the time, he was unaware when she slid inside his head, hovering there for just a few moments, and then leaving again. Angel knew it was wrong. It was a complete violation of his privacy, but she could not help it. It was the only way that she could feel like she was a part of his life, and she craved that closeness.
Everyone thought that she was invincible. That she was able to easily handle anything that was thrown her way. She put up a good front. As alpha of RARE, she had to be strong, capable, and even deadly. She didn’t have a choice. Her team needed her, her children needed her, but sometimes, every once in awhile, a part of her wondered when she would get what she needed. She always put everybody else first. Just once, she wanted to know what it felt like to be first, and it shamed her to admit that, even if it was only to herself.
As their plane rolled up in front of the hangar, Angel stood and pulled her bag from the overhead compartment, and then made her way up the aisle to stand in front of the door. The moment they came to a stop, she shoved it open. Instead of waiting for the steps to touch the pavement, she jumped out, landing lightly on her feet. A phone began to ring from the back of the plane, and then Nico’s low, “Hey, baby,” reached her. She didn’t want to hear anymore. It hurt her to see other people with their mates when she was forced to deny her own.
Walking over to the waiting SUV, she raised the lift gate in the back and threw her bag in. Not bothering to close it, she went around and opened the dri
ver’s side door. Resting her hand on the top of the door, her gaze slowly swept the area as she waited for her team to exit the plane and make their way to her. They were laughing and joking around, in good spirits because they were finally home. A small smile crossed her lips as she listened to them. She was their leader, their alpha, but it was so much more than that. Over the past few years, they had become a family, one who would do anything for each other.
“I’m looking forward to twenty-four hours of shuteye,” Phoenix said, carefully placing a large duffle bag still full of explosives in the back of the SUV and then tossing his other bag in next to it.
“Shuteye, huh?” Sapphire quipped, her bright blue eyes full of amusement. “Is that what they are calling it nowadays?”
“Well, you have been off the grid for a long time now, sweetheart,” Phoenix drawled. “We do things a bit different now than we used to.”
Sapphire raised one delicate eyebrow, “I highly doubt it is that much different.”
Phoenix laughed, shaking his head. “You just wait until you find your mate one of these days.”
Sapphire held up a hand, taking a step back, “I will leave that mating crap to all of you. Trust me, there isn’t a man out there who would want to have to deal with me on a daily basis.”
Angel glanced at her watch impatiently before looking back at the plane. They needed to leave soon if she was going to get everything done that she needed to before finally getting some sleep that night. Her gaze landed on Nico and she stiffened, alarm spreading through her. He was standing in the open doorway of the plane, staring at them, his jaw tight with anger and a deadly look in his eyes. What the hell was going on?
Nico quickly scaled the steps and stalked toward them, lethal intent surrounding him. Leaving the door of the SUV hanging wide open, Angel quickly closed the distance between them, her team right behind her. “Talk to me,” she ordered. The rest of the team crowded in around them, but his gaze never left hers.
“What the fuck is going on, man?” Trace growled.
“The General has made a move,” Nico told them quietly.
“Go on,” Angel ground out, somehow knowing her entire world was about to be torn apart.
“Some of his men infiltrated the White River Wolves compound,” Nico said roughly, a muscle in his jaw ticking, “and he didn’t leave empty-handed.”
“Who?” Angel demanded, even though she had a sick feeling she already knew the answer.
“Jade,” Nico whispered. A loud roar ripped from Trace’s throat, his claws emerging from his fingertips and his fangs extending. Angel’s heart beat faster as she waited, because she could tell Nico wasn’t finished. “She was watching the girls for Chase while he was out of town. The bastards snuck in and got all three of them. When Chase showed up and interrupted their plans, they took him, too.”
Angel felt her own fangs drop, and her vision began to blur as her wolf struggled to break free. The General had her babies. He had her mate. He may as well have cut out her heart. Her body shook, and a deep growl rumbled in her chest. A pain like nothing she had ever experienced before coursed through her, and she threw her head back, howling in agony and rage. The fucker was going to die for taking what was hers. She was going to hunt him down and tear him from limb by limb. He had made the biggest mistake of his life, and now there was no place on earth that he could hide. He was a dead man.
8
The drive to the White River Wolves compound normally took forty minutes, but this time RARE made it in just under thirty. It took Angel a good portion of that time to get her wolf under control, and she knew Trace was still walking a fine line of his own. His cat was pissed and wanted out to start the hunt for his mate.
Nico pulled through the front gates, acknowledging the guards with a quick wave, but not bothering to stop. Angel was glad to see the rest of the team waiting for them in front of Chase’s office building. Jade’s father, Steele, was pacing impatiently up and down the sidewalk, his mate, Storm, nearby. Angel flung open her door when the SUV came to a stop and jumped out. When he saw her, Steele bared his fangs and growled, “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch, Angel.”
“Not if I get to the bastard first,” she bit out, stalking past him and raising a hand to indicate that all of them should follow. They didn’t have time to waste talking. They needed to take action. She had to find her babies before the trail went cold. A shudder went through her at the thought of never seeing them again. Never seeing Chase again. No, she would not let that happen. They were hers, dammit! All of them. And she was getting them back.
Conversation stopped the moment she stepped into the large conference room, her team quickly filing in behind her. She saw a couple of the younger enforcers flinch, and she dug her nails into her palms as she tried to get a hold of the barely controlled rage that engulfed her. The others could sense it, and some were terrified.
A soft cry left Jenna’s lips when she saw Nico, and she was across the room and in his arms seconds later. Ignoring the sobs that tore from Jenna’s throat as Nico held her close and tried to calm her, Angel demanded, “First of all, I want to know how the General’s men got not only onto the compound, but also into Chase’s house without anyone knowing. Then, I want to see any security footage you have of the kidnappings,” Angel paused as pain swamped her. Taking a deep breath, she continued, “I want to see where the abductions took place, I need all the information you have, and I need it now.”
Bran, Chase’s beta, glanced over at Jenna, raising his eyebrows as if asking her permission to share what they knew with Angel. A low growl rumbled in Angel’s chest, and she stepped forward until she was glaring straight into his eyes. She saw the subtle shift in Flame’s footing from behind her and to the left as she moved slightly forward as if to protect Bran, but she did not reprimand her for it. Flame had been in hell for almost as long as she had, refusing to accept the beta as her mate. Defending him now was a step in that direction, and Angel would not call her out on it. “Chase is gone. As his mate, you answer to me, not Jenna. Do you have a problem with that, Bran?”
A gasp escaped Jenna’s lips, and she turned large, hopeful blue eyes in Angel’s direction as she whispered, “You are claiming my brother, Angel? You are accepting him as your mate?”
“He has always been mine.” Angel’s eyes sparked and she growled again, her lip curling up to show the tips of her fangs as she looked at the beta, and then each enforcer in the room individually, daring them to say otherwise. “Do we have a problem here?”
Bran took a step back, placing a small distance between them. His eyes still locked on hers, he said, “No, Alpha Mate,” as he tilted his neck to the side, lowering his eyes in deference to her.
Something deep inside Angel’s soul shifted as the rest of Chase’s wolves followed suit. They were all acknowledging her as their alpha’s mate, an honor she wasn’t sure she deserved, and putting their trust in her. The fact that she and Chase were not fully mated yet, and that there had not been a mating ceremony, did not matter. The White River Wolves were now hers to protect, and she would not fail them.
“Good,” she said. Standing tall with her shoulders back, she raised her head high as she looked at all of them. “Now, let’s go find my family.”
“Yes, Alpha,” was the united response.
Angel stood in front of four computer monitors, anger flowing through her as she watched a woman with long, dark hair dressed all in black, enter Faith and Hope’s room. Jade was standing over Hope’s bed, leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek before walking around to the other side of the two beds that were shoved together to do the same to Faith. “Goodnight, sweet girls,” she said softly, her voice filling the small room Angel and her team were in. “Your daddy will be home soon. I know he’s missed you both very much.” Angel caught her breath at the word daddy. Neither of the girls had called Chase that as far as she knew, but it fit him perfectly. He was their father, had been from day one.
Jade di
d not notice the woman at first, which surprised Angel because not only was her daughter a wolf, but she also had some very powerful gifts like her parents. She should have sensed the woman behind her, scented her, felt her presence. But there was nothing. Faith’s eyes opened, and she whispered, “Why does he have to go away sometimes? I like it better when he’s here.”
Jade smiled, slipping a blonde curl behind Faith’s ear. “Me, too,” she admitted quietly. “I feel safe when he’s here.”
“Too bad he’s not here right now then, huh?”
Jade’s gaze swung to the woman silhouetted in the doorway, a low growl emerging as Faith let out a loud scream. Before Jade could move, the woman raised a gun and fired. Trace let out a hiss of anger as a dart was embedded into Jade’s neck. His mate took a tentative step forward before her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell to the floor with a soft moan.
When Faith screamed again, a man walked into the room, raised a gun, and shot both Faith and her sister with darts, shaking his head in disgust. “I can’t stand brats. Why would anyone want them?”
The woman shrugged, lowering her weapon and crossing the room to place her fingers on first Faith’s neck, searching for a pulse, then Hope’s.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She looked back at him like he was an idiot, “Making sure they are still alive. That was a high dosage you gave them. It wasn’t meant for the little girls. It could kill them.”
The man shrugged, “Who the fuck cares?”
The woman straightened, her dark brown eyes void of emotion, “The General.”
Before the man could respond, she held up a hand and moved swiftly over to the window, sliding the curtain back just enough to see out. “The alpha’s home. Hide.”
“Why would I hide?” the man sneered, a cocky grin on his face. “I’m not afraid of the big bad wolf.”
Angel's Destiny Page 5
